Lewiston Civic Center: Residents vote 'no'

Pictured is an artist's rendering of the proposed Lewiston Civic Center.

Proposal falls by almost 2-to-1 margin

by Joshua Maloni

As the Lewiston
Civic Center referendum vote was revealed Monday night, a stoic Steve
Reiter said it all.

"The public
spoke. The public spoke," the Town of Lewiston supervisor said.

Despite his
efforts to win over voters on the idea of a multimillion-dollar
recreation facility, Lewiston and Sanborn residents rejected the idea
by a nearly 2-to-1 margin at a special referendum. Those voting in
favor of the town moving forward with the project numbered 673. Those
in opposition to the idea totaled 1,312.

"I would say,
unfortunately, I think there was pressure about cost and things like
that that probably weren't portrayed as well as they could've been,"
Reiter said. "People were worried about expenses of the building
and things of that nature, even though we had stated rationally how
that would come from different sources; and utility costs, we could
use our electric moniterization money (funding the town receives each
month from the sale of hydropower). I just don't think that was
portrayed as well as it could've been."

When asked if the
project is now dead, Reiter said, "I would say it would be very
difficult to regenerate the project with that kind of vote. It would
be very difficult."

Ultimately, Reiter
said voters were swayed by "fear of the unknown of the money. Fear
of expenses.

"I can
understand that. I can really understand that."

Almost 80 absentee
ballots were cast, but did not play a factor in the final tally. A
total of 10,698 registered voters were eligible to participate in the
referendum.

The Civic Center would've been built on the Lewiston-Porter campus on Creek Road.